Akwasi Mensah, commissioned by Jazz re:freshed

About the commission

Filmmaker Bunny Bread weaves a tale of guilt and innocence, from three distinct perspectives. The accompanying live score guides each unique telling of the story, where composer Akwasi Mensah explores how dynamics in music can be used to manipulate the emotions of an audience. Guilty or innocent? You decide.

“As a musician my aim is always to create music that is spiritually satisfying and culturally honest. With a soundtrack, it becomes a joyous challenge to marry these aspirations with the emotions on film. The goal in this instance, will be to compose something fitting and worthy of ‘Jazz re:rreshed’ the excellent organisation that has commissioned this work.” Akwasi Mensah

“Being selected for this project is an incredible opportunity for Jazz re:freshed on many levels. Most importantly, it’s an opportunity to shine a light on the music and musicians we’ve been championing for over a decade, on a scale and stage that we couldn’t achieve without participating in this project.” Jazz re:freshed

More about the composer

Akwasi Mensah is a 21st century composer, who willingly embraces the unlimited possibilities of the technological age. Blending orchestral elements, soul, jazz, samba and hi-life, his music has been used in film, dance performances and visual presentations.

Production and session credits include work with First Avenue, Refugee Camp, 4 Hero, Jazzanova, Bugz in the Attic, Modaji, IG Culture, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Kaidi Tatham, Yukimi.

He has also been a musician and musical director with artists such as Chaka Khan, Leroy Burgess, 2000 Black, Arturo Verocai, Izzi Dunn, Silhouette Brown, Kaidi Tatham, Legends of the Underground and Positive Steps (Ballet Negre Performance).

He also supported and trained young musicians through several programmes and also engaged in youth work with Black Eagle Oahu in Hawaii and Jazz workshops in Ghana.